A Procrastinator's Wise Advice and Success Strategy

The secret of motivating present self is in imagining the consequences for future self. We need to be able to go “back to the future.” You don’t have to believe me, a blog reader/podcast listener says it best!

My colleague Fuschia Sirois (Canada Research Chair, Bishop’s University) and I just published a paper entitled, Procrastination and the priority of short-term mood regulation: Consequences for future self. Fuschia has a keen focus on the discrepancy between the present and future self, as well as what this means for procrastination. I invite you to read the paper. I really like it (the complete reference is provided below, and here's a link to the abstract).

That said, I received an email from a reader of this blog and listener of my iProcrastinate podcasts who summarizes the tension between present and future self best. His strategy is one we all need to learn to use. I think it speaks for itself. With his permission, here is the text of the email message.

I have a technique that I figured out one day that I have been having great success with and wanted to share - you may have already mentioned it in your blog or podcast but I'm not sure. When I am aware that I am wanting to procrastinate I make myself think and FEEL the corresponding negative emotions I would feel in the future if the consequences of my procrastination became real.

My particular battle with procrastination is around not doing the necessary health behaviours to maintain a balanced life (I have problems with anxiety, and as a result have physical tension issues). Skipping these behaviours such as stretching, mindfulnessmeditation, and exercise has physical and emotional consequences, such as increased anxiety, back pain, depression etc. so the cost of my procrastination is high, and so is the emotional toll when confronted with the realization I am not helping myself. Because the negative emotion is so strong I can imagine it at the point of temptation and I can honestly tell you it is pretty hard to give in at that stage.

I guess simplified it is the process learning by mistakes - I do something, I have a negative outcome, then I change my behaviour – but only by conciously pulling the negative emotion from the past and projecting it into the future do I close that learning loop and manage the last step of behaviour change. I have to actively do it every time but I am getting better at it. It depends on awareness, and implementation intentions but it is working well for me.

I hope this is useful in some way.

Thanks again, James

Our thanks go to you, James. This is one of the most useful things I think any of us could learn. I want to put some emphasis on James' last point. He said:

". . . only by conciously pulling the negative emotion from the past and projecting it into the future do I close that learning loop and manage the last step of behaviour change."

Certainly we can all harness this strategy to motivate our daily health behaviors, but I would argue at this time of year, it’s an important strategy for our economic health as well.

Tim, does this research help to explain why some people (claim they) perform best under pressure and need the pressure of the situation to get motivated? Feel like it describes me - though i don't want it to becuase it has gotten me in many hairy all-nighters, from which I am far too old now to recover.

“The people who perform best in normal conditions may not be the same people who perform best under stress,” Diamond says. People born with the fast-acting enzymes “actually need the stress to perform their best.” To them, the everyday is underwhelming; it doesn’t excite them enough to stimulate the sharpness of mind of which they are capable. They benefit from that surge in dopamine — it raises the level up to optimal. They are like Superman emerging from the phone booth in times of crisis; their abilities to concentrate and solve problems go up.

This idea of projecting how you will feel in the future is something I used (albeit unsuccessfully!) with my son when he procrastinated doing his exercises and practice to improve his baseball skills. He was usually in tears when he was threatened with not making a team or performing poorly in a game situation.

So I would say to him, "Put yourself in the future and see/feel how upset you will be when you do not make the team. Then you will be wishing you had practiced more, but then it will be too late. Now there is still time to change all that."

I thought it was a good idea and this listener concurs. Sadly, it wasn't enough to motivate my son to do anything about it!

I can relate deeply to your readers dilemma. I too experience 'more' anxiety when I don't do the mitigating behaviors; meditation, exercise, eating, and sleeping. The reverse is also true in my experience. that is the negative emotion projected into the future without changing strategies and/ or behaviors can result in more procrastination. For example, if I have had a 'negative' experience due to a certain action and I then withhold action (procrastinate) because I expect a similar, negative result. Sincerely, R